Access To Land
Agricoltura Nuova is an organic farming cooperative in the natural reserve of Decima Malafede in Rome. It was started in 1977 by a group of students, unemployed people and farm workers on public land after squatting an area that was to become a big building site. Since then, the land has been returned to farming and then into a natural reserve. Some of the former squatters still live and work on the farm and are very active on access to land issues at a local level.
Nowadays, the cooperative employs 40-45 people and manages about 400 hectares of public land. The farm is organic (moving towards biodynamic production). It supplies the local market, and provides local families need for food and leisure. It is very involved in the local community, and is also a thinktank for rural innovation and policy.
